Obama's Change of Heart

I'm not exactly Obama's biggest fan, but I don't hate the guy, either. With this, I'm fairly honest and objective about my thoughts on the guy. Today, I woke up to this: Obama finally voices support for same-sex marriage.

I am something of a cynic, and being that it took him until campaign season to come out and actually support same-sex marriage as opposed to taking the politically-correct toned down liberal position of supporting civil unions but not marriage, I do believe that at least half of his announced change in stance has to do with politics.

However, he does give good arguments as to why he changed his stance. In the above-linked article, he says that he noticed his kids simply couldn't understand why same-sex couples couldn't have the same rights. Makes sense to me. Kids tend to see things much more simply, and Occam's Razor - the simplest solution is usually the right one.

But ultimately, what does it matter? I'd like to believe that his reasoning is genuine, but as long as he backs it up in policy, what does it matter as to why he is doing it? American politics really are an extension of American capitalism - the one who is most willing to give the voters what they want is the one most likely to get elected. But, I will be watching Obama nonetheless to make sure his support is more than the all-too-typical pretty words to get votes.

Derogatory Words

This may seem a strange thing to do a post on, but it's seeming to become more relevant. We've all probably heard the term "politically correct," and probably don't think very highly of things that fall under that label.

There are times when political correctness does become ridiculous. I've heard of cases where hate groups instead become labeled as "unhappy groups" in the guise of political correctness.

On the other hand, there are words that really are best to be treated as curse words. To name a few examples (only as examples of such words, don't take offense) - niggers, kikes, chinks, crackers, wetbacks, and several others. Those were terms that were made up exclusively as insults with no technical relevance or benevolent intention. So those I am all for treating as swear words, and in general discourage the use of, except in proper context in theater and writing (keep history in mind - I don't support the N-word having been edited out of Mark Twain's work) and of course in giving examples (lest I make myself a hypocrite).

But, we have another category here - what about technical words that have become insults?

Campaign to treat "retarded" as a swear word.

Unofficially, said word has been treated as a swear word or insult for decades now. But there was a time that it was the proper technical word for a condition. The dictionary definitions can be found here. Basically, it means "delayed" or "slowed down." Now government documents use such terms as intellectually disabled, other organizations take it a step further and say "differently-abled." I'm not against terminology changing, although I think "differently-abled" is a bit... hmm... flowery? I'm all for treating people with disabilities with dignity and respect, but there are of course those who take offense at it being labeled as a disability. It does affect the quality of one's life and inhibits independence, so by definition, it is a disability.

I don't know... I'm of two minds on this. On the one hand, the more sentimental part of me supports this effort. I can understand how it may make people feel for a descriptive term of themselves to be used as an insult. On the other hand, the more technical part of my mind says that this word shouldn't fall into the ranks of the racial slurs and insults, even if it unofficially has. Let it be one of those things where the more intelligent/enlightened ones keep the true meaning of the word in mind. Keep in mind that there have been similar efforts on this same issue. Remember how "special" became such a loaded word?

Thoughts, anyone?

This is a graphic from an old MAD magazine in regards to prejudice and inequality: